Carl D. McQuillion v. William Duncan, Warden

Petitioner-Appellee Carl D. McQuillion was convicted in 1973 of two counts of murder and sentenced to seven years to life. In 1979, the Board of Prison Terms (“the Board”) found McQuillion suitable for parole and set a parole date of October 7, 1998. At each of six progress hearings after the initial grant of parole, McQuil-lion’s parole date was advanced for good behavior by four months for every year served. However, at a final progress hearing in May 1994 a panel of the Board refused to advance McQuillion’s parole date, even though there was no question about his continuing good behavior. If the panel had advanced the date, as the previous six panels had done, he would have been immediately released. Instead, the panel referred the case to the full Board, which voted to hold a rescission hearing. In September 1994, a panel of the Board found “good cause” to rescind the grant of parole and voted to rescind McQuillion’s parole date as improvidently granted.

After exhausting his California remedies, McQuillion sought a writ of habeas corpus in federal court. The district court denied the writ, but we reversed that decision on appeal. McQuillion v. Duncan, 306 F.3d 895…